Sir, - We congratulate Kathryn Holmquist on her excellent article on speech and language therapy services in the Republic (EL, May 9th). I think every speech and language therapist was lost for words - a rare occurrence in our field - with unexpected delight that pertinent issues in our profession were so clearly highlighted.
Waiting lists of over two years are commonplace. We are failing our children by not intervening at the earliest possible stage, which can often lead to further difficulties (e.g. literacy problems during their school years).
As Ms Holmquist pointed out, there is a shortfall of around 600 speech and language therapists in our country at the moment. She notes that "70 of these senior people have left the profession in the past two years, disheartened by poor pay and career structure". That approximates to a staggering one fifth of our entire profession.
We will continue to fight for our voice and that of our clients. - Yours, etc.,
Sallyanne Duncan, Louisa Doyle, Public Relations Committee, Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, Gardiner Place, Dublin 1.